Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

SAVAGE MALAYS OF JOHOR 127
Food and its Preparation.
Benua-Jakun.—Much of their [the Benua's] food is,
according to Logan, derived from fishing, snaring, and
hunting, no sorts of flesh being rejected. The
ungka, kra, and probably some other species of
monkeys, are, according to Logan, used by them
as food, but he believes not frequently so, and
"although the Malays asserted that snakes were
eaten," he could find no corroboration of the statement
while amongst the Benua.^
According to the same authority, the Benua-Jakun
tribes of Johor also make use of a considerable
number of fruits and seeds, which they obtain from the
forest, and eat either in their raw state or after boiling
or roasting them. He mentions the names of no less
than sixty-nine of these trees.^
In dealing with the subject of fire-making among
the Benua-Jakun, Logan remarked that the means of
obtaining a light were so simple that there was no
occasion to carry fire on their journeys. On his way
1 Logan,y. R. A. S. No. 7, p. 87. Cp.
Newbold : "In eating, no dish adorns
one with fleshless seeds ; ihe rambutan,
ther.gading, r.uhan,r.kasumt)a, rambei,
their table, save occasionally the leaf of duku, two kindsof manggis (mangostin),
the ' sayak ' tree, and that of the I'iro hangke, bidara, tanipui, niarki, lunko-
(? Birah) furnishes their usual drinking- koyo.klueng, bokobaka,bahkon, katian,
cup. A vessel of clay called ' Tarn- chaminoi, rampinoi, saun, kani]xing,
mumong ' is applied to the purposes of sundeh, taban, nierpadi, kes, garop,
cooking, differing in shape from that chabet, ranieng, palas, gippu, kadunused
by Malays. The entrails of wild dong, kulem, saloi, hukani, tampanoi,
animals are taken out and the hair jittai, kcrdas, bluru, blatong, nialai,
scraped or singed f>fif before the flesh mindaleng, kapas, ridan, ranianipas,
is boiled. Instead of betel-leaf, ihcy ramun, jila, ujol, k. rabu, pahct, kich-
often chew the leaf of a tree called ipo, tikact, kilcai, pinjeng, jiring, kika,
' kassi,' together with the arcca-nui and buntol, jilibom, mayong, machang,
gambler, but seldom mix them with kachang, kirpol, kawe, pakop, tayo,
lime. Tobacco, whenever it can be timanibun, gungang, dumpa, merlilin,
had, is used to excess, even by women
and children." — Newbold, ii. 405,
kansil, pilampi. J. I. A. vol. i.
258, 259. For identifications,
pp.
see
406 ; cp. y. /. .'/. vol. i. p. 257. Ridley's Tiant-List, and other parts of
- Including several kinds of durian, this book.
—